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Today's Top News
Tony Blair Pelted with Eggs and Shoes at Book Signing
Former prime minister attacked by anti-war protesters in Dublin as he promotes memoirs
DUBLIN - Violent skirmishes broke out between protesters and police at the first public signing for Tony Blair's memoirs, with shoes and eggs hurled at the former prime minister.
Tony Blair's first signing of his memoirs in Dublin descends into violence as anti-war protesters clash with Gardai. (Photograph: Niall Carson/PA) Three
men were arrested after they broke through a security barrier at around
10.45am today outside Eason's bookshop on O'Connell Street in Dublin,
Ireland.
The demonstrators, ranging from anti-war demonstrators to the Continuity IRA-aligned Republican Sinn Fein, who oppose the Northern Ireland peace process, are now marching to a garda police station in the city centre demanding the release of the three arrested men.
Gardai had earlier dragged a number of demonstrators off the street and during the fracas a male protester in a wheelchair was knocked to the ground.
Protesters shouted "Whose cops? Blair's cops!" as they taunted the gardai while Blair remained inside the bookshop. They also shouted: "Hey hey Tony hey, how many kids have you killed today?"
About 400 people were queuing up around the side of the store in Middle Abbey Street to meet Blair. They were verbally abused by a number of left-wing demonstrators who denounced them as "west Brits".
Protester Pixie ni hEicht, from Dublin, criticised both the garda and the hundreds who had turned out for the book signing: "The police are west Brits who are protecting a British terrorist and the people queuing up over there should be ashamed of themselves. All these people buying the book are jackeens and traitors."
Following the skirmishes, the city tram service was suspended and shops in the surrounding area were also closed.
Buyers at the signing had to hand over bags and mobile phones before entering the store. Undercover detectives mingled with the crowds taking names before Blair arrived at about 10.30am.
A huge security operation was put in place around Dublin's main thoroughfare in preparation for the Blair visit. The northbound end of O'Connell Street was closed to traffic from early this morning while the city's main northside tram link, the Luas line, was closed down.
Plain-clothes detectives were also deployed around O'Connell Street as part of the security operation.
After the signing, the former prime minister was whisked from a side entrance of the store at about 12.40pm.
In his memoirs, A Journey, Blair defends his decision to go to war with Iraq in 2003. The book, which was released earlier this week, has become one of the fastest selling autobiographies on record.
Before the signing he had already enraged the anti-war movement in Ireland with comments on the Irish TV programme The Late Late Show last night.
During his interview on RTE, Blair warned that Iran was now one of the biggest state sponsors of radical Islam. It must be prevented from developing a nuclear weapon, even if that meant taking military action, he said.
Blair defended the decision to invade Iraq in 2003, despite Saddam Hussein not possessing weapons of mass destruction.
He tried to convince the audience that he acted against the one million people who marched in opposition to the war because he could not take decisions "based on those that shout most".
Blair, who was greeted by about 50 protesters at the RTE studios, also denied he had "blood on his hands" and said he didn't believe he was a "war criminal".
It is believed he chose Ireland for his only live interview since his memoirs' publication because he felt he would get a better hearing because of the peace he secured in Northern Ireland.
He said: "When we finally got the whole lot together, literally weeks before I left office in 2007, and there was Martin McGuinness sitting with Ian Paisley, and it was such a strange and extraordinary sight and it was one of the few times in politics I felt really proud actually."
Comments
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81 Comments so far
Show AllThe day Tony Blair dances the Tyburn Jig will be a good day for justice.
What a chore it is being a neoliberal war criminal. Celebrated and glad-handed by the filthy rich in Davos while the man in the street just aches to fling a shoe your way or see you brought to justice for your crimes.
Blair, Bush, Obama, Clinton - the names change but they're all interchangeable, soulless pitchmen for oligarcy and empire.
Very to the point. Nice.
fake french you are SO right! The names change but it makes no difference at all!
Let's not forget Cheney and his pack of neo-con buds - Sociopaths, all.
I believe 100% with no margin of error, that if the mentally challenged G.W. Bush were to receive a pelting of eggs & shoes here in the US, there would be dead protesters.
Dumbya is protected by his daddy and James Baker for sure. When those two evil old fuckers finally die of old age, Dumbya is going to be left to fend for himself in a world that knows exactly what he did.
I fully expect G.W. Bush to be fighting serious war crimes charges and actively dodging arrest in 20 years or less.
Don't forget another war criminal called Barack H. Obama.
And Jesus W. Taxcut
Thank you, the list of war criminals gets longer with every election...oh, war criminals bush and cheney were never elected !
& john winston howard
Yes, but fortunately, the lesser bush can't write a book. Let alone read one... Any ghostwriter who lives today wouldn't want to use crayons to write a book for him no matter the reward for them.
On edit; my bad, apparently a ghost writer has written a comic book about bush's reign of error...
The lesser bush will never expose himself so carelessly in public. He's going to spend the rest of his wretched life being whisked from site to site and not be allowed to see outside of his gilded cage. It's good that he doesn't see that he is in such a cage; it might upset the pampered ponce.
Blair said he could not take decisions "based on those that shout the most". but he could listen to a USA sociopath and he would start another bullshit war with Iran. He was not a poodle but part of the pack of mad dogs and I appologize to any dog that is insulted. Tony
Give hell to that piece of human trash Tony Blair!
Sorry I wasn't in Dublin with some eggs. A book to justify his decision to invade Iraq? How do you like it now, Tony?
Go home and hide yourself.
Here's what Chris Floyd said a few days ago about Blair. (Check out his blog, Empire Burlesque.) I don't think it can be put any better than this:
"I really don't have anything else to say about this sickening spectacle -- which is being compounded in Britain, where I live, by the sight today of Tony Blair's murder-tainted mug plastered on the front of the main newspapers, as he makes the rounds pushing his new book, doling out "exclusive interviews" full of crocodile tears for the soldiers he had murdered in the war crime he committed and the "great suffering" of the Iraqi people which, goodness gracious, he never foresaw and feels, gosh, really bad about. All this laced with venomous comments about his former colleagues -- those who, like Gordon Brown, sold their souls to advance Blair's vision of aggressive war abroad and corporate rapine at home -- along with, of course, earnest protestations of his God-directed good intentions, and his unwavering belief that killing a million innocent human beings in Iraq was "the right thing to do." Pol Pot could not have been more blindly self-righteous than this wretched moral cretin.
"I will say again what I have said here many, many times before: What quadrant of hell is hot enough for such men?"
Ephraim:
I love reading Chris Floyd....
As if the the pernicious image of Tony Blair making his book tour isn't noxious enough, George W. Bush's publisher has scheduled the release of his memoir--'Decision Points'-- for November 9, following the mid-term elections. In fact, 'The Decider' is scheduled to begin hyping the book during a live, televised, prime-time interview with that famed master of hard-edged, no-holds-barred journalism, Matt Lauer (ugh!) on November 8. Needless to say, I won't be tuning in, especially after listening to Obama's deceitful, cringe-inducing speech the other night, wherein he obsequiously stated that “no one could doubt President Bush’s support for our troops, or his love of country and commitment to our security.” I wonder if the Peace Laureate will make himself available during the interview to genuflect at 'The Decider's' feet. NOTHING would surprise me anymore! These people have no shame and no "quadrant of hell is hot enough" for any of these utterly despicable people.
I've followed Chris Floyd since he was at the Moscow Times. He's brilliant.
The 'Peace Laureate'. Good one. We'll add that to Our Chives.
I recommend you CD folks see the movie 'GREEN ZONE'. * * * * *
Way to go, Dublin!!!!!!
Tony "Worm-tongue" Blair should be facing a war-crimes tribunal, not signing books.
You got to love the Irish!!!!
Gutsy S.O.Bs
I hope they used hard-boiled eggs and steel-toed shoes.
LOL
Raw eggs leave a better mess.
"Tony Blair Pelted with Eggs and Shoes at Book Signing"
Yep...Sounds like the Celts to me....Tony Blair signing books in Dublin......Priceless....
We need another Dublin "Easter Rebellion" in the U.S.
I am grateful that Obama is winding down the war in Iraq as he promised to do that. Would this happen if McCain or Palin were at the helm????
Obama said he wanted a try at fixing Afghanistan that had been mismanaged for years. He also said he would wind down that war next year --
I am disturbed by the several comments accusing Obama of being like Blair and Bush -- I see a profound difference and I am really sorry that the majority of us voters now is turning against Obama.
We will be sorry if he gets replaced by those Republicans that caused a lot of trouble over many years.
Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove caused a lot of problems-- due to the Republicans controlling Congress when Clinton was in office in 1992-- nobody took advantage of the peace dividedent- the collapse of the Soviet Union -- we abandoned Afghanistan for the entire 1990s and a lot of problems started up then and will not leave us either if we go back to the Repubican party. Republicans are climate change deniers from way back too.
A lot of people will be mighty sorry if we get them back in the saddle.
This time I do not have to study who is running for office-- it will be the Democratic lever I will pull because at least those whoever will side with Pelosi who is a lot better than Tom Delay or Dennis Hasper.
Nope....I am not biting the bait.
No comment.
Good call, readytotransform.
Well thank you, O.S.!
Yes,
Obama is a "Centrist". And Centrists are at least somewhat better than Right-Wingers.
Not nearly as good as a WONDERFUL Liberal such as Congressman Dennis Kucinich, but anyone who doesn't know the difference between a Centrist and the psycho-freaks such as the Right-Wingers like Cheney and Rumsfeld and Gonzales and Rove are simply ignorant or are letting their anger cloud their logical thinking.
Believe me, I am VERY ANGRY at people (I won't use the word HUMANS) like the aforementioned (Cheney, Rove, etc.) who are Psycho-Freaks and deserve to be treated and written about as such.
Centrist in a fascist nation is a fascist.
Fix Afghanistan by sending in more stormtroopers, how would you like your home to be fixed by a Drone?
Common horse sense, either you have it or you don't
Morph back, willya.
what a fucking creep.................
he probably thought that now he's converted to catholisism he'd be safe in ireland.................
hey tony blair!
you say you meant well.
so how come you fear
you'll end up in hell?
a fine catholic man
you claim to be,
but your name will be damned
for eternity.
the books should have been singed, not signed............
But maybe not quite safe in the hereafter.
Aren't there some folks on this side of the Pond who deserve the same treatment? What about in Canada? Oooo, I'd love a chance to toss a cherry pie - with the pits left in.
There're pockets of rebellion all over the world right now - I hope they'll coalesce into a global revolution.
One can not steal and name it democracy. Democracy does not come in suppository form.
LOL
Democracy is the 51% majority rules, which is always the upper half of society who are the most aggressive and wealthy, which never fails to be a police state for the lower half.
blair has promised the proceeds from this book to british vets.
is that why it's being sold half-price?
in a BBC interview earlier this week blair reiterated his lack of regret vis-à-vis the removal of saddam, but "reproached" himself for having banned fox hunting.
2010 -- COLONIAL AS 1776
Some say the rich of Israel rule our Empire, others say our multi-national rich rule England, but what if the rule of these three nations has not changed since the 1700’s?
For before we had the illusion of an American Revolution that made all our rich nobility disappear, England ruled our nation along with all of the Middle-East, and all the plunder going down now looks just as colonial as it did in 1776.
That little sh*t should be glad they didn't drag his sorry a** out in the street and lynched him.
The fact he came out at all, and came out to sign his stinking name of all things, shows his stupidity.
metamorph
“I am grateful that Obama is winding down the war in Iraq
as he promised to do. Would this happen if McCain or Palin
were at the helm?”
LIGHT
Not Bush, not any Republican president or Republican controlled Congress, would have dared to give $11 trillion to High Finance and continue plundering with abandon by the two most unpopular wars you could imagine.
And so, above poster being a classic example of our self-absorbed society, surely we need to test all voters for common horse sense.
whatever happened to his position of the 'peace envoy' for the middle east?..................
i'll leave it up to you guys to come up with some pertinent responses..........
. . . the same thing that happened to our promised 'Peace Dividend' when the Berlin Wall fell.
War is more profitable for the Owners.
Go Irish! Now we need to see the same treatment, wherever they go, for Obomber, Sarkozy, Berlusconi, Merkel, and all the others responsible for the disgusting state of the world today.
Tony Blair can lie just as well in Dublin as he did in London, and this proves it.
AD
I live to read the immature name calling and use of vulgarities. Some should post at beavisandbutthead.com. Twits should twitter.